The present invention relates to a memory device and a printing system for a dot printer which performs high-grade printing of characters, symbols and graphics in the form of aggregated dots.
Dot printers are well known in the art. Usually, a dot printer comprises seven vertically aligned printing wires which are advanced stepwise five times per character to form a substantially 5-by-7 dot matrix. This type of dot printer is provided with a memory device, which can store pattern data in the form of matrices, e.g., 5-by-7 matrices, similar to the dot matrix patterns of the characters, symbols and graphics noted above.
In recent years, dot printers have become increasingly popular in various fields such as offices and factories. For making high quality documents with such dot printers, there is a demand for providing an increasing variety of fonts for the dot printers. This dictates an increased storing capacity of the memory device which stores these fonts. For example, a storing capacity of 34 byts per character is required for high quality printing in the case of a 17-by-13 dot matrix. The increase of storing capacity calls for increased space and also for additional expenditures for setting the memory device in the dot printer.